Authentic Social Studies Assessments Through Student-Written Letters

Something special happens when I ask my 10th-grade World History students to write a letter. They come to life. Their buy-in spikes, as does the quality of their writing. Reluctant writers write more copiously, more fervently, and are proud of their work, eager to share it with others. And, as a teacher, I am left with much more intimate, creative assessments that make grading more fun and meaningful. 

I am hardly the first teacher to discover the power of audience-driven writing, but this concept deserves a closer look within social studies, especially in this age of increasing AI encroachment. Not all of my units culminate in a letter, but it is increasingly my assessment of choice, especially for this challenging second half of the year when motivation can wane. I use one of two formats for these letters:

1. A teaching letter to a family member or friend about what they learned in the unit.
2. An advocacy letter to a stakeholder attempting to influence their policy on an issue.

Using A Letter to Anchor a Unit

The basic flow of a unit goes approximately like this:

1. Introduction (Lesson One): I introduce a new unit—e.g., my unit on the troubling ways our society romanticizes and mythologizes World War II (inspired by the recent work of West Point professor Elizabeth Samet). I tell students they will be building toward an in-class letter on the topic that they will share with a family member or friend.
2. New Content (Lessons Two–Six): I introduce students to various sources on the topic, with frequent reminders to take notes on relevant ideas for their letters. For example, students read diverse testimonies from real World War II veterans, learn from Isabel Wilkerson about connections between Nazism and American history, and watch excerpts from Ken Burns about the ways our nation both helped and did not help Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust.
3. Outline (Lesson Seven): Students compose detailed outlines in class for their letters using pencil and paper while I circulate and coach them. 
4. Write (Lesson Eight): Students silently write their letters by hand in class. They are encouraged to rely primarily on their outlines, but the assessment is open-note—students can use any resources except for laptops and prewritten drafts.

Students write remarkably rigorous and personal letters. I require them to embed and contextualize their sources in ways aligned with AP history courses. I encourage them to pick their audience early in the unit so that they can consider writerly components like voice and identify examples relevant to their letter recipient. For example, one student had multiple extended family members living with PTSD, so he addressed his letter to his father and wrote about the postwar experiences of World War II veterans. 

Extending the Activity

Arguably the best parts of this letter-writing process are the optional bonus opportunities I offer afterward. Since this involves sharing the letters beyond our classroom, I do a bit of quality control—asking students who scored less than an 80% to meet with me to revise their letters. Then I do some public relations: Students first read to their letter recipient a brief, paragraph-length disclaimer from me that introduces the rationale for the letter assignment and contains my email in case they have feedback. 

Students next share their letter with their recipient—either in person or virtually over a platform like FaceTime—and have a conversation with them about the letter. Finally, students compose a written reflection about this conversation or even make a one-minute TikTok-style video with their recipient summarizing their debrief (sample video here). Needless to say, these opt-in extension assignments are incredibly popular and transformative in their own right.

This approach is largely AI-proof, since students are doing most of the outlining and all of the drafting in class. I will occasionally have a student panic and use AI to write their outline, but this is usually obvious because the outline will not match the sources we studied in class.

Additional Letter-Writing Opportunities

Here are some other examples of how I use this letter-writing approach:

1. Neuroscience: Students often arrive in my class not knowing how to study, so we start the year with a mini-unit on what recent neuroscience reveals to be effective versus ineffective study practices. Students then write a teaching letter to a friend or family member who they think might benefit from this research.  
2. Columbus: Students typically do not get the full story about the Age of Exploration before arriving in high school. Students read a range of sources on Christopher Columbus and then write an advocacy letter to a politician at the local, state, or national level arguing for or against keeping the Columbus Day holiday.
3. Haiti: My school’s Eurocentric textbook devotes 50 times as much space to the French Revolution as it does to the Haitian Revolution. Students learn the fuller story of Haiti’s past and how it connects to its present struggles. Then, they write a letter to the textbook publisher arguing what content they should add to their next edition and why.
4. Race: My students are deeply curious about race but often quite misinformed. Students read various sources about the social construction of race and then write a teaching letter to a friend or family member about what they learned.
5. Digital media literacy: My students get much of their news from social media and frequently come to me with questions about misinformation they have encountered online. Students learn how to identify fake news and deconstruct dangerous conspiracy theories before writing a teaching letter to a friend or family member.

Ultimately what I love most about this assessment model is how it empowers students as both teachers and activists. It has strengthened classroom bonds and even deepened relationships with families and other community members. As we head into this second half of the year, I encourage all social studies teachers (and even other humanities teachers) to give this approach a try. This model has made my grading burden feel lighter and awakened those students deepest in winter hibernation.